Namco Bandai Holdings announced today the formation of a new development company, Namco Bandai Studio.

The new studio will be responsible for the development of Tekken, Soul Calibur, Taiko Drum Master, Tales, Gundam and other existing series, and will also work on the creation of new IPs.

You can basically think of Namco Bandai Studio as being the development division of Namco Bandai Games. The new studio will be formed by splitting off the development areas of Namco Bandai Games into their own company. It will include over 1,000 staff, including the 80 people that were absorbed from Namco Tales Studio earlier this year.

In a press release announcing this development today, Namco Bandai Holdings said that splitting Namco Bandai Games' development functionality into a single company will lead to speedier and more optimized development, while also helping to better foster developer skill and creativity.

The studio, fully named Namco Bandai Studios Inc., will be formed on April 2 and will be located in Shinagawa and headed up by Hajime Nakatani. The studio's official areas of business include planning, development and management for home games, arcade games and network contents.